Actually, I think this came out in 2013, but I did not get around to reading Elizabeth Gilbert's novel, till this year. And while it was my fourth book read, it was the first new one I would truly call great. From the moment I opened it, I was hooked.
This came as a surprise for me, for Gilbert's reputation has been built on her breakthrough non-fiction book, "Eat, Pray, Love," which only held any interest for me because of how well she wrote on the Italy. The rest of it was her own self-aggrandizing.
So, I was unsure, when this book came out, if she could even write fiction. I had to admit I was curious. Well, girls, you are in for a treat!
First, if any of you, like me, have shame or regret over not having taken Advanced Placement Biology, when you finish this book it will be like having taken a course!!!!!!!! And Gilbert's written forays into science are not text bookish in any way, but have a poetry all their own that will make some regret they did not go into these professions. Probably, because, like me, they had cookie cutter teachers, not individuals of real inspiration and spirit, like Gilbert's heroine, Alma Whittaker.
When it comes to scope, for a relatively short--500 page--book the scope and span is epic. From Philadelphia, to Tahiti, to Amsterdam; to emotional forays into altruism, sibling estrangement, sexually repressed spinsterhood, repressed homosexuality, Gilbert covers a wide terrain that many would take a thousand plus pages to develop. Her prose is clear, concise, and structured.
As such, it offers non-stop reading pleasure! I truly did not want this book to end, and the last book I can recall feeling that way about was "The Luminaries."
Gilbert's fictitious work far exceeds the quality of her non-fiction success. I look forward, avidly, to what fictional turn she will take next.
An underrated writer, not to be reckoned with!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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